April 07, 2009

I have 29 years of contributions to Social Security, and yet I will not receive my full benefit upon retirement because I’m now a teacher and participate in the Public School Retirement System. This benefit, which is minimal, is considered a windfall and I am penalized.

H.R. 235, the Social Security Fairness Act, is currently pending in the House Committee on Ways and Means. This bill would repeal the Windfall Elimination and Government Pension Offset Provisions.

Teachers, firefighters, police officers and government employees affected by this should contact Charles Rangel and the House Ways and Means Committee members now and urge them to support H.R. 235. Why should we not receive 100 percent of our due, just as those in the private sector? We work for the government in service industries. This is an outrage and an injustice. Go to http://waysandmeans. house.gov/contact.asp

March 04, 2009

Ponzi schemes, I have read, are frauds that occur when a manipulator sells an investment to an original group of people and pays them off with money taken from a subsequent investor. The scheme continues to work until there are no more new investors (suckers) to fund the scheme and pay off those from whom money was taken earlier.

This sounds a lot like what the politicians have done to us by spending the money taken from us and leaving in its place an IOU. Those IOUs were and are major contributors to the national debt, even before all of the recent stimulus spending. They take money from the new generation to pay off the prior generation.

Our children and grandchildren will be paying for our Social Security because the politicians spent the money we gave them before we need it. The system continues to function so long as there are enough taxpayers (suckers) for the government to fleece to pay back those whose contributions were taken earlier.

January 24, 2009

From time to time I read about some of the younger generation crying about paying into Social Security. It just gripes their rears they have to pay so we seniors can have a comfortable retirement.

They act like they are giving us something. The fact is we have paid into it all of our working lives, so we are getting nothing we don’t deserve. So just shut up and pay it. If you did get a few dollars extra each week you would just go out and buy a bigger flat-screen TV or a bigger house you had no intention of paying for that would go into foreclosure in a year or two anyway.

January 09, 2009

The people of the United States have no problem believing a Ponzi scheme when initiated by an individual (Bernard Madoff), but can’t believe their government is doing the same thing. Two recent letters (12/31) about Social Security to The Star confirm my theory.

The first writer states “from the beginning, it has been a pay-as-you-go government system.” The first recipient of monthly Social Security benefits, Ida May Fuller, paid in $24.74. She received benefits for 35 years. So much for that theory. He then challenges non-believers to keep their tax money in exchange for letting his mom and dad live at their house. Isn’t that his responsibility?

The second writer states he is entitled to what he paid in, plus interest. Please see my first example. Most, if not all, recipients receive significantly more money than they ever put in. Where does this money come from? Ask Madoff.

Mark S. DamonBlue Springs

You may be among the relatively few people who benefit or will continue to benefit greatly from the legal Ponzi/pyramid scheme known as Social Security. But that doesn’t mean you should disregard the complaints made by people near the bottom of the pyramid, like me (22 years old), who will likely never see the money I’ve been paying in since I was 14 years old and will continue to pay in until the government is forced to admit the truth.

Ben AuldOlathe

What Social Security started out to be and what it is now are two different things.

When it was first instated, it was meant to be like an insurance policy, where what is paid in draws interest until it is needed. That would mean keeping it in a separate investment account. As there were many more people paying in back in the early days than those collecting, the fund would have grown rapidly and would have covered payouts for a long time.

That’s not what happened. The money was just dumped into the general fund, not generating interest and leaving the government to pay with current receipts. That means that as the number of retirees grows, the burden on the current workers grows heavier and heavier.

As an 81-year-old widow, I’m glad it’s there, but I paid into it almost all my adult life. So did my husband, but he died just before he could collect anything. So what he paid in just disappeared into a black hole, as has happened with many others.

So don’t blame the current retirees for the current debacle. Blame the greedy, irresponsible people who run Washington.

December 30, 2008

Enough already with the references to Social Security as a Ponzi scheme. From the beginning it has been a pay-as-you-go government system and never an “investment.” It is social insurance.

Call it socialism or welfare or even a bailout, but don’t call it an investment.

Some people think they can get a better return on their tax money than the government will pay during their retirement years. If it were truly an investment, that would probably prove true (unless you invested with the wrong adviser or we had another depression). But Social Security will provide income if you become disabled, or support your family if you die. That is insurance, not an investment.

Those folks should take a look at a 401(k) or an IRA or even tax-deferred annuities. We have many vehicles for amassing wealth in this country.

To anyone who really thinks Social Security is not effective, I ask them to consider a trade. Would you like to keep all your tax money in exchange for letting my mom and dad live in your guest room?

Don PorterOverland Park

Social Security is not and never was a Ponzi scheme. I paid into Social Security since I was 14 years old. I am not only entitled to the return of the money I paid in, but the interest I earned for 64 years. Compounded, that’s about five to seven times what I paid in.

Just increase Social Security tax on the big money incomes as President-elect Obama proposes, and we’ll probably be solvent for a long time.

October 20, 2008

Michael Hansen’s (10/14, Letters) says that the “government spends 100 percent of the Social Security funds it receives and promises to pay all future Social Security payments out of future tax collections.” Not exactly.

FICA taxes go into trust funds, out of which come benefit payments and administrative expenses. The excess is invested in government bonds. These bonds pay interest regularly back into the trust funds.

To say that these bonds are worthless is the same as saying that the treasury bonds that private investors hold are worthless or even that every $20 you have is worthless, because “nothing backs them up.”

Well, the full faith and credit of the United States back them all up. The system works without gold bars or overflowing vaults because America works. You can be assured that if America doesn’t work, the stock markets won’t work, either.

Anyone who considers the full faith and credit of the United States to be worthless has far more to worry about than Social Security.

October 13, 2008

As things stand today, the government spends 100 percent of the Social Security funds it receives and promises to pay all future Social Security payments out of future tax collections. Today, there is nothing there to pay future social security payments. Nada. Zilch.

If Social Security funds had been invested in the stock market, the fund would have temporarily lost value. However, the fund would have been making significant gains in the previous years, cushioning this loss. Today, the fund would contain a very large portfolio of stocks that could be used to fund future Social Security payments. Furthermore, this market drop would be a great buying opportunity for the Social Security fund, which would profit handsomely when the market comes back.

The stock market would have to drop 100 percent and never come back before the stock market funding model would be as bad as the current Social Security funding model.